Statement of Communist Party of Turkey on Victory Day

'We are still inspired after a century,' the Communist Party of Turkey says on the 96th anniversary of the Victory Day, which was one of the decisive battles of the Independence War on the road to the establishment of modern Republic of Turkey

The Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) has released a statement on August 30, regarding the 96th anniversary of Victory Day to commemorate one of the final and most decisive battles of the Turkish War of Independence in 1922.

“We are continuing to be inspired by those who paved the way for the liberation in a country where everyone gave up hope, by the strength of the confidence in truth and justness without regarding their numbers, by the optimism and faith which saw the liberation of a new country in the Anatolian people who had been exploited and kept in ignorance for centuries; in other words, by the great struggle that ended on August 30,” the TKP statement has noted.

August 30, 1922, was one of the critical moments of the great struggle against the imperialist struggle in Turkey following World War I that had been waged by two imperialist camps between 1914 and 1918 with the aim of sharing the world on the basis of a global monopolistic competition in defiance of millions of lives.

As the collapsing Ottomans participated in the war so as to extend its hopeless life, the Germany-led camp lost the war, culminating in the occupation of Turkey by imperialist states like the UK, France, Italy, the US and minor forces like Greece.

As the reactionary Ottoman dynasty collaborated with the imperialists, the legitimate independence war under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk against the imperialist occupation had a historical significance since it stood with the Soviet socialist revolution as the great hope of the workers and the oppressed around the world.

The TKP has indicated to the importance of the Victory Day in the Turkish Independence War under the command of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, which led to the establishment of the modern Republic of Turkey from the ashes of the obsolete Ottoman Empire and the imperialist occupation.

“The establishment of modern Turkey, which was realized by the direct contribution of the Soviet socialism’s challenge to the imperialist hegemons, became a signal for imperialism showing that it would not maintain the era of overt barbarism and colonialism as easily as it had done previously,” the statement has underlined, adding that the Soviet Union came to the aid of national liberation movements.

TURKEY NEEDS A NEW VICTORY

Stating that the replacement of the progressive and inspiring Republican era with reconciliatory policies with imperialism stood for a long and painful death for the country, the TKP has said that the independence war which had been won at battlefields was lost because of the capitalist power that plundered the assets of the working people and surrendered the sovereignty to the imperialist forces.

The TKP has pointed to the privatization of precious public entities of the Republican era such as SEKA (Turkey’s first paper factory), TÜPRAŞ (the formerly state-run oil refinery) and Telekom, which eventually led to the end of the Republic in Turkey.

Indicating to Turkey’s partnership in imperialist military organizations, the TKP has said that the country capitulated its army to NATO and lost its independence in the military field, too.

The TKP statement has underlined that Republican Turkey was concluded in the hands of the capitalist class; as this reactionary and pro-imperialist class plundered the country and got richer in defiance the working people.

“Our fight against imperialism and its collaborator capitalist class has not finished yet,” the TKP has concluded the statement, saying that Turkey’s workers will celebrate victory days again in the future.